


The Ones That Love Us Never Really Leave Us

by Ladderofyears



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ballet Dancer Lily Luna Potter, Family Feels, Gen, Heirlooms, Memories, Sad with a Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 14:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20508851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladderofyears/pseuds/Ladderofyears
Summary: Lily Luna Potter searches in the attic of Grimmauld Place for a very special family heirloom.





	The Ones That Love Us Never Really Leave Us

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you once more to the lovely Mods at Next Gen Monthly Scenes. 
> 
> The September theme is: Are those _vintage?_, and the prompt was_ Oh. Was this supposed to be romantic?_ Apologies are in order: my funny fic turned slightly more angsty than I'd imagined, but I realised I didn't want to change it. 
> 
> Ginny's poem is, of course, canon, and can be found in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

Lily Luna cast a quick dust-repelling spell, taking in all the boxes and cases that had been piled haphazardly in the attic of Grimmauld Place.

There didn’t seem to be any discernible order, and Lily couldn't risk using a _Accio_ to find her prize. The magic in her childhood home was volatile and untrustworthy: half a dozen random objects might pile up on top of her, summonsed by the voice of a Potter. 

“Careful sis,” James had warned, raising an eyebrow when Lily had told him of her mission. “I reckon Dad hid those Horcruxes there after the War. All sort of Dark Objects up in that attic, hidden away...”

But Lily, however, had refused to be put off. 

She remembered her Dad packing all these items away when she was a tiny child, her Mum exhausted by all Harry’s precious knick-knacks that littered their home; souvenirs from a life well lived. Dad couldn’t help his hoarding tendencies, Lily understood that. A childhood without any toys or even a space of his meant that _everything_ was precious to him. The man had no filter whatsoever. 

She smiled as she saw one of Albus Severus’s childhood drawings, the broomstick still buzzing around the page after all these years, and a Hogwarts First-Year prize that had been awarded to Teddy. _Best At Transfiguration_. Lily snorted. Her brother had some advantages in that particular subject. 

In the next box was some of her old toys; her Martin, the Mad Muggle doll, and a snitch that still floated (admittedly a little lopsidedly). There were the cards that she, Al and Jamie had made for Father’s Day, every year kept neatly tied together. Lily opened one, and their childish voices sang out, the charm still as fresh as the day it was cast: _Thank you so much for being our Dad! When you’re off on a Mission we all feel sad!!_

Lily cast a Tempus, and was surprised to find that over an hour had passed since she’d began. 

She huffed, sneezing with the dust that was starting to creep through her magic. She’d already been through three boxes, and her object of desire seemed nowhere to be found. Lily knew her prize was up here somewhere though. She just had to keep looking. 

Lily cast a repelling charm on the chunky spiders that kept threatening to run up her arm, and set to work looking through an old trunk. She felt her face flush when she realised it was full of romantic notes between her parents and while she felt a bit naughty reading them, Lily simply couldn't help herself:

**His eyes are as green as a freshly pickled toad, **  
**His hair is as dark as a blackboard.**  
**I wish he were mine, he’s truly divine,**  
**the hero that defeated the Dark Lord…**

This work of art was written in a Valentines Day card in Mum’s beautiful, looping handwriting. Dad had annotated it underneath, with a note that read: _Oh. Was this supposed to be romantic?_

Lily giggled. She loved her Dad immensely, but Harry Potter really wasn’t the most intuitive of men. Considering he’d been the Head of the Auror Service for nearly a decade now, Dad could be surprisingly oblivious. 

The object that Lily was looking for today was a true family heirloom, a leather jacket that she remembered hanging in her parent’s wardrobe. Even back then it had been a murky, battered old thing, scratched and hex-marked, discoloured and decrepit. It had smelt like excitement to her childhood nose, like oil and smoke; musky yet enticing. 

It had smelt like escape. 

The jacket had belonged to Sirius Black, a man that Lily Luna had never had the pleasure of meeting during her lifetime but whom she felt as much love for as any of her living relations. Dad still spoke of the man with such reverence and veneration that Black had always felt alive in her imagination. 

Black’s words had rung in her ears the whole of her life. When Lily had chosen to leave Hogwarts early, following her dream to pursue ballet dancing on the Muggle stage, only her Dad had truly supported her.

“_What is life_,” Dad had said, giving her his blessing, “_without a little risk_.”

Lily had heard the words of Sirius spoken though Harry, and she had felt blessed that her Dad had known his Godfather and loved him, even thought their relationship had been so achingly brief. 

Lily dug through another two boxes until she finally found the jacket. It wasn’t vintage, sophisticated or beautiful. It was a heavy and practical thing, a beast of an object. 

And even after so many years, it still smelt like freedom. 

~@~

“He would have loved you, Lils,” Dad told her, stroking a finger down the side of the jacket. “You’re fearless, just like he was. You seize life with both hands… And you never let you go.”

“And are you sure it’s alright that I have this?” Lilly asked. “Shouldn’t it go to Teddy? For his children? It belonged to his Dad. He hasn’t got much, really-”

“It was Teddy’s idea that you have it,” Harry said, pressing it into Lily’s hands. “Said it kept his own Dad safe. He wants that luck behind you too. It’s what Sirius would have wanted too. There was nothing he loved more than riding his bike, wind in his hair. Caged for _twelve_ years, Lily. It was an abomination. Sirius deserved to be free.”

Lily grinned, and wrapped the leather jacket around her body. It was far too big, but it was warm and dense, with a frisson of old magic that tingled against her skin. 

For a small second Lily felt the warm breath of its old owner against her ear, whispering his blessing, but when she turned he’d gone. Lily picked up her crash helmet, and pushed her wand up her sleeve. 

The whole world was waiting for her. 

“Take it,” Harry urged. “Go and have adventures.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading XX


End file.
